Is YOUR Conscience A Reliable Guide For Living?

by Englishman 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  Englishman

  No, its is most certainly not a reliable guide!

  Well, according to the WTBTS it's not, anyway.

  Back in my witnessy days, the public talk entitled: "Is your conscience a reliable guide for living?" majored on Man's totally inability to do anything remotely good of his own accord. Man was not to be trusted at all, every act and thought needed to be supplied to him from the Bible, and, of course, the Faithful and Discrete Slave. Do not trust yourself, young man, you are not to be trusted!

  Hmm. That little bit of negative imprinting stayed to haunt me personally for many years, so, like many dubs and ex-dubs, a vague generalised sense of guilt was my constant companion, with the result that my life was inflicted with an uneasy sense of malaise for much of the time. (It's because you have turned your back on Jehovah..whisper whisper...) However...

  I will state what I now believe to be the case, if this thread runs. First off, some people need to tell me if they do believe that one's conscience is a reliable guide to life.

  Or not!

  Englishman.
• 

  Fe2O3Girl

  Funny isn't it? A person who is receptive to the JW message is said to be so because they have the right heart condition.

  And yet, when you are a fully fledged baptised witness, your heart is treacherous, not to be trusted.
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  Prisca

  Good point Fe203girl!

  For my life, I rely on my conscience, but I also try to follow common-sense, because sometimes when emotions rule, we can make bad mistakes!
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  Perry

  I do not consider my conscience to be a reliable guide. But then again, it really could be since my conscience is not a reliable guide.

  Dontcha just love JW reasoning?
• 

  Englishman

  OK, well I DO believe that my conscience is a reliable guide to living and that it has always been a trustworthy companion. It's only when we stop trusting our conscience to guide us that we emotionally injure ourselves. At that point, guilt becomes our companion to fill the hole that our rejection of our own conscience has left. Guilt, IMHO, is grief from our own mistrust in ourselves.

  Englishman.
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  Brummie

  Eman are you suggesting that God doesnt have an organisation that "directs the minds" of his people? I remember the Watchtower that said "some" suggest such a thing....they must have meant you.

  Anyhows, like you I was troubled by that "Your conscience is only as perfect as you are" for a number of years, at the end of the day I still left because of the conscience bothering me about telling WT lies to people on the doors....wonder what kind of conscience they wanted us to have to blindly expect us to bury all the WT lies and preach on regardless?....I'd rather follow my own imperfect conscience anyday, it feels less guilty that way.

  Brummie
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  Kenneson

  I believe in following my conscience--but it must be an informed conscience. That is why the Watchtower shouldn't object to sites such as this one. Life isn't all one sided--the Watchtower's side.. We have all examined that position already--now let's look at the other side. Isn't the internet great?
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  Cardinal Fang

  IMHO, if you allow another individual or *ahem* organisation to make every remotely significant decision in life for you, then what was the point in God supposedly giving you a conscience? And I don't mean a 'Watchtower Bible-trained conscience' either - the faculty was supposed to have been 'wired in' to humans way before the WT was ever thought about, if the Bible is to be believed - "law to those without law" and all that.

  As far as the WT and conscience goes, my thoughts are pretty well summed up in the words of Robert Burns, in his 'Advice to a Young Friend':

  "The fear o' hell's* a hangman's whip to [hold] the wretch in order / But where you feel your conscience grip, let that ay be your border"

  (*for "hell", substitute "Armageddon" )
• 

  ozziepost

  for "hell", substitute "Armageddon"

  Many a true word is spoken in jest!
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  minimus

  I believe my conscience is a reliable guide because EVERYTIME I do something wrong, I feel good, I mean bad.